1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to communication links including, but not limited to, serial interfaces for integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Background Art
High-speed communication links using serial interface protocols are used to communicate data between devices in a system. Examples of industry-standard protocols for high-speed input/output (HSIO) links include those related to PCI Express® (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), XAUI (X Attachment Unit Interface), sRIO (serial Rapid IO), and many others.
The data rate requirements of such serial data links continue to increase as technology advances. In addition, larger numbers of transceivers may be needed in certain applications due to increases in bandwidth and throughput requirements. Unfortunately, as the data rate and the number of transceivers increase, the power consumption of the transceivers becomes of greater concern.